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British Government in Limbo as Parties Bargain

LONDON — No sooner had the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, said that he would consider forming an alliance with the enemy Conservative Party after last Thursday’s inconclusive national election, than the Twitter messages began.

Using the topic “#don’tdoitnick,” thousands of people began pouring out their dismay about the usually not-so-urgent subject of electoral reform, a major potential sticking point in continuing talks between the two parties.

“Proportional Representation = Real Representation,” said one. “Tell Nick Clegg not to sell out!” said another. One of the most popular Twitter messages played with a common computer error message: “FPTP error 404: Government not found. Please reset your voting system to proportional representation and try again.”

The British government remained in a state of suspended animation on Sunday. Gordon Brown, the Labour prime minister, was still holding on to power, despite leading his party to a loss against the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, without enough seats for a parliamentary majority, the Conservatives continued talks with the third-place Liberal Democrats about an alliance that would let the Conservative leader, David Cameron, eject Mr. Brown and move into 10 Downing Street as prime minister.

Each side is sending four senior members to the meetings. The Conservative team comprises William Hague, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman; George Osborne, its treasury spokesman; Oliver Letwin, chairman of the policy review committee; and Ed Llewellyn, Mr. Cameron’s chief of staff. The Liberal Democrats’ team is made up of Chris Huhne, the party’s home affairs spokesman; David Laws, its spokesman for home and families; Andrew Stunell, a former deputy party chairman; and Danny Alexander, Mr. Clegg’s chief of staff.

Sunday’s meeting broke up in the late afternoon. Mr. Hague emerged to say that the group had had “good” discussions on “political reform, economic issues and reduction of the deficit, banking reform, civil liberties,” and environmental issues.

Perhaps to reassure jittery financial markets, which could react unhappily on Monday morning to continued signs of political instability, Mr. Hague stressed that “we are agreed that a central part of any agreement that we make will be economic stability and the reduction of the budget deficit.” Mr. Alexander made similar remarks, describing the talks as “good.” The two sides planned to meet again within 24 hours.

Mr. Clegg and Mr. Cameron spoke by telephone on Sunday. In a surprise move, Mr. Brown slipped out the back of Downing Street for a meeting with Mr. Clegg at the foreign office. Both sides described it as “amicable,” but no details emerged.

Government officials drew up contingency plans several weeks ago for the current situation, a so-called hung Parliament. The plans call for the sitting prime minister, Mr. Brown, to remain in office until he or another party leader gathers enough support to lead a government. Mr. Brown has made it clear that he hopes Labour can reach a deal with the Liberal Democrats, but that possibility looks increasingly remote. “I think it would look very, very shabby for us to be seen hanging on to the doorknob of No. 10,” a Labour member of Parliament, Malcolm Wicks, told the Press Association news service.

Mr. Brown is under some pressure to resign as party leader. But party stalwarts said he was doing the right thing by staying put, at least for now.

A former Labour cabinet secretary, Lord Turnbull, said that Mr. Brown was not a “squatter” in Downing Street. “The worst thing he could have done would have been to have huffed off to the palace saying, ‘I’m off,’ and we would have had no prime minister at all,” he told reporters.

Demonstrating that it was business as usual, sort of, Alistair Darling, the Labour chancellor of the Exchequer, met in Brussels on Sunday with the finance ministers of other European countries to discuss how to help the crisis-plagued euro.

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“What we will not do and what we can’t do is to provide support for the euro,” Mr. Darling said. “That has got to be for those countries that use the euro.”

The outcome of negotiations between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives is by no means certain. The parties have starkly opposing views on several issues, including Europe, immigration and taxation. But it is electoral reform that has raised the most passion among grass-roots supporters.

Liberal Democrats feel they have been penalized by the current voting system, in which candidates with the most votes in individual districts win parliamentary seats, regardless of how well other candidates did. Under this system, candidates from parties whose support is spread across the country, like the Liberal Democrats, win fewer seats.

The Liberal Democrats favor a form of proportional representation. The Conservatives have made it clear they think the current system is fair.

Among Liberal Democrat supporters, about 2,000 people rallied in London on Saturday in support of proportional representation More than 5,000 people joined a “Don’t Do It Nick!!” Facebook group. More than 36,000 people have signed a “Take Back Parliament” petition on the Internet. On Sunday, the Twitter campaign continued to build steam, with those who back proportional representation raising thousands of pounds in a matter of hours to buy advertising space in The Times of London on Monday.

While Mr. Clegg faces pressure from his party’s left wing not to give in on voting reform, Mr. Cameron faces pressure from critics on the right wing of his party not to cede ground to the Liberal Democrats.

“Mr. Cameron has dissipated a 20 percent lead in the polls, he has love-bombed the Lib Dems and said he is the heir to Blair,” Lord Tebbit, an elder statesman of the Conservative right, was quoted as saying in The Mail on Sunday, referring to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. “That wasn’t helpful in winning the election.”

Mr. Cameron should stick to his party’s positions, said Lord Tebbit, long a critic of Mr. Cameron, adding, “If he was pushed around by a minor party into abandoning things in the Conservative manifesto, it would be daft.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 10, 2010, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: British Government in Limbo While Parties Bargain. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe